Vietnamese EV start-up VinFast announced a “prudent,” 3-year delay in the opening of its first U.S. assembly plant. It’s the latest in a series of setbacks for the automaker which suffered a wave of harsh reviews for its initial offering, the VF 8 crossover.
Many EV makers want to see just how far they can get their vehicles to travel on a single charge or how fast it can recharge using a fast DC charger, but Lucid’s improved its industry-leading efficiency to a new high. Find out more at Headlight.News.
New EV buyers face an immediate dilemma once they make the choice to go all-electric: how will I charge my new vehicle? Stellantis is making it easier with a few options, including a new free home charging setup. Check it out at Headlight.News.
Looking to build momentum for its latest – and now, all-electric – 500e, Fiat launches a special edition named for fashion legend Giorgio Armani. And it hints that it may bring a second new model to the U.S.: the Grande Panda crossover which debuted last month in both hybrid and all-electric form.
Will it or won’t it? That’s the big question in the racing world this week as Toyota reportedly prepares to announce plans to reenter Formula 1 racing. It would mark a return after a failed effort ended 15 years ago. But Toyota is said to be partnering up this time, likely with the American F1 Haas team.
Back-to-back quarterly sales drops seems to have CEO Elon Musk’s attention. Always looking for ways to bolster deliveries, Tesla’s offering a new long-range variant of the Model 3 sedan. Get details at Headlight.News.
Things are back to normal at 15,000 U.S. showrooms after a hack that brought operations nearly to a halt last month. Data processing firm CDK apparently paid a $25 million ransom to regain control of software controlling everything from sales prospects to payroll. But the damage has topped $1 billion in lost sales and other issues.
More than half of the automotive models now on sale offer some form of partial automation, whether to help steer, brake or accelerate. Manufacturers have promoted these technologies as a way to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities – but, with the exception of front automatic emergency braking, a new study finds “partial automation…doesn’t confirm additional safety benefits.”
Although EV sales aren’t going at breakneck speed these days, automakers are still churning out new models and planning for future models. To make that easier, the Biden administration awarded $1.1 billion in grants to General Motors and Stellantis to convert existing plants to build electric vehicles and components. Get details at Headlight.News.
Nearly a quarter of all new vehicle buyers in the U.S. owed more on the vehicle they were trading in than it was worth. Being “underwater” isn’t uncommon, but the percentage was the highest it’s been in three years. Find out more at Headlight.News.
It’s been four decades since Honda started building Accords at a new plant in Marysville, Ohio. Today, foreign-owned manufacturers are producing more vehicles in the U.S. than Detroit’s Big Three. And the gap is only expected to widen, in part due to local production mandates covering battery-electric vehicles, reports Headlight.News.
It’s been a tough year for EV start-ups, Fisker filing for bankruptcy, and several others expected to follow. But there have been a few glimmers of hope. Price cuts helped Lucid outperform sales expectations during the second quarter, buying it time to bring a second product line to market later this year. But with Wall Street still skeptical, the California manufacturer remains critically dependent on cash from the Saudis, Lucid’s largest investor.